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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23952178">the day you kissed a writer in the dark</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesoundofsirens/pseuds/thesoundofsirens'>thesoundofsirens</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fall Out Boy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, but it's okay cause they work it out, with a little bit of fighting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 01:48:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,354</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23952178</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesoundofsirens/pseuds/thesoundofsirens</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a dangerous business, dating a writer. Patrick knows full well that one of Pete's characters is based off of him, and he's fine with that, at least until that character turns out to be a total douche.</p><p>(Title comes from "Writer in the Dark" by Lorde.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Patrick Stump/Pete Wentz</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the day you kissed a writer in the dark</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s a dangerous business, dating a writer. Some days Patrick can’t remember which fights they’d really had and which ones he’s lived vicariously through Pete’s blog.</p><p>He’d been flattered the first time his character showed up, honestly. Slightly embarrassed, definitely, but still flattered. It was like proof that he showed up in Pete’s thoughts even when he wasn’t there, even if it was in the form of a superhero in a short story series. </p><p>Not that his boyfriend ever admitted that Soul Punk was based after Patrick, of course, but the man’s superpower was literally his voice and Pete never wrote about the character without describing his “sea green eyes.” So no matter how many weak excuses Pete churned out, Patrick knew the truth. And he didn’t mind, really. At least not until his character turned out to be a total douche.</p><p>“What the fuck,” Patrick says evenly, looking up from Pete’s latest post. “I just broke up with you.”</p><p>“Um,” Pete says eloquently.</p><p>“I cheated on you? <i>Really?</i> Is that what you think of me?” Patrick can feel the eyes of everyone else in the coffee shop on them, but in the moment he can’t really bring himself to care.</p><p>Pete opens his mouth and shuts it again immediately, which is just as well, because Patrick isn’t nearly done talking about this.</p><p>“What happened to my <i>character development?</i> I know I have self-image issues and I look for validation in my relationships with others but goddamn, Pete, that’s not gonna go lead me to a side chick.”</p><p>“Babe-” Pete starts. Patrick steamrolls past him.</p><p>“Don’t you <i>babe</i> me after we just broke up,” he says indignantly. </p><p>“But you’re the one who broke up with me,” Pete mutters under his breath. It’s the wrong thing to say.</p><p>Patrick’s eyes widen, and Pete can’t help but back away slightly. “So you admit it! You admit that Soul Punk is my character and you just made us break up!”</p><p>“So what if he is you!” Pete yells back, crossing his arms, and it hits Patrick all at once.</p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>Pete’s quiet.</p><p>“I- you really want to break up?” Patrick’s voice is impossibly small, nearly lost in the sound of the espresso machine behind them, but Pete’s trained enough to catch it. He knows exactly what it sounds like when Patrick’s getting in his head like that.</p><p>“No,” Pete says firmly, grabbing Patrick’s hand. Patrick lets him take it, so that’s a start. “No, I don’t want to break up, Trick, Jesus.”</p><p>“I just…” Patrick can’t make eye contact.</p><p>“Hey,” Pete says, rubbing a circle on his boyfriend’s wrist. “Look at me?”</p><p>Patrick does. </p><p>“Patrick, I love you,” Pete says, because he feels like that needs to be a prerequisite for the next thing he has to say and he’s trying very hard not to fuck this up. “And yes, Soul Punk is based off of you-”</p><p>Patrick’s eyes lower again.</p><p>“-but the boyfriend isn’t based off me.”</p><p>The words don’t seem to compute, based on the way Patrick is still doing his best to sink into the couch.</p><p>“Kingston’s a fictional character, Trick,” Pete says. He figures his best bet is just to plow through and do damage control later. “And so is Soul Punk. And yes, I gave him some of your best qualities, but I didn’t let him have all of them, because honestly, babe, it’d be pretty damn hard to do you justice.”</p><p>There is the tiniest bit of a smile on Patrick’s face, so maybe he’s making some headway.</p><p>“So yeah, the characters broke up, but that doesn’t say shit about us, okay? Because last I checked, we were a real thing, in real life, and we’re doing pretty okay.”</p><p>“I don’t want to break up either,” Patrick blurts out.</p><p>“Good,” Pete says, finally letting an easy smile take over his features for the first time since Patrick had stopped reading.</p><p>“It just seems sudden,” Patrick says, picking slightly at the corner of the couch where there’s a thread coming loose. “Like Soul Punk has a pretty good thing going with Kingston, right? So why would he just throw that away?”</p><p>Okay, so they’re doing character analysis now. Pete can handle that. “That’s fair,” he acknowledges. “But Soul Punk’s fatal flaw is that he always self-sabotages, right? So say he feels comfortable, and happy, and safe. He’s going to doubt that it could last, he’s gonna be afraid of getting hurt, and he’ll shut himself out again. It’s the same cycle that happened with Megan in season one, remember?”</p><p>Patrick frowns, but he can’t deny it. It’s definitely a repeated cycle.</p><p>“Things were getting too comfortable,” Pete continues. “He just needed a big change.”</p><p>“But why does the big change have to be a breakup?” Patrick challenges.</p><p>“Because-” Pete starts, and then finds himself hesitating. Why <i>did</i> it have to be a breakup? “Because drama?” he offers weakly.</p><p>‘Because bullshit,” Patrick says, and there’s that fire back again. “Kingston is worth fighting for, Pete, and you and I both know it. So they fight! They figure it out! If Soul Punk needs a change then you should write him an engagement ring, not a side chick,” he says.</p><p>Pete swallows, and there’s something in his eyes that Patrick’s not sure how to read.</p><p>“Is that what you want to happen?” Pete asks finally.</p><p>Patrick doesn’t think they’re talking about the story anymore. “Yes,” he says stubbornly, because the answer is true either way.</p><p>“Okay,” Pete whispers, and they let it drop for the moment. In fact, they let it drop for a few months, enough time for the blog’s story line to continue and for their lives to keep going too. Patrick manages to forget about it entirely until the day Pete comes barging into the room clutching his laptop and something in his other fist, and shoves the computer into Patrick’s hands.</p><p>“I was writing,” he says, eyes gleaming. “Just read it.”</p><p>Patrick’s about halfway through the first paragraph when he looks up, frowning. “Kingston is back? Didn’t they break up?” He’s careful to use the word <i>they,</i> not we.</p><p>“Alternate timeline,” Pete says by way of explanation, flapping his hands vaguely. “Keep going.”</p><p>The setting’s a little fuzzy, but Kingston is giving some speech and Soul Punk is talking about how much he’d missed him and then Kingston is getting on one knee and Patrick looks up and Pete is getting on one knee too.</p><p>“Patrick,” he says, and that’s about as far as he gets.</p><p>“Yes,” Patrick blurts, and Pete smacks his arm gently.</p><p>“I haven’t even asked yet,” he complains.</p><p>“Well get on with it, then,” Patrick says, setting the laptop down.</p><p>“I love you,” Pete starts. He’d had a whole speech prepared, but he’d forgotten it at some point or given all his best lines to Kingston, and now he has to wing it. “I love you so much, Trick, and… and I’ve seen you at your worst, and you’ve seen me there too, and we always get through it. And I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life by your side and fighting through it together. So.” He unclenches his fist and finds the ring, holds it out like a lifeline. “Marry me?”</p><p>“Obviously,” Patrick says fondly, and then he’s pulling Pete up from his knees and kissing him as hard as he can manage and maybe tearing up a little bit, but it’s not like Pete can judge him. Patrick sees him wipe subtly at his eyes too. He slides the ring on, admiring how it fits and feels and looks like it was made for him. Knowing Pete, it very well might have been.</p><p>“Are you going to post the new ending?” Patrick asks him, much, much later, after they’ve said all the other things that needed to be said and done the things that needed to be done along with it.</p><p>“No,” Pete says decidedly. Patrick doesn’t have a chance to be disappointed before he keeps going.</p><p> “I think I’m going to save this part for you and I.”</p>
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